Long Beach council to discuss plans for Schroeder Hall Army Reserve Center

LONG BEACH - The dissolution of redevelopment agencies has slowed a project to build a new Eastside police substation with a controversial mental health center for the homeless.

Even as officials try to determine the status of $3.5 million committed to the project by the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency - rendered defunct by state budget cuts - the City Council is scheduled to meet in closed session Tuesday to discuss negotiations to acquire Schroeder Hall Army Reserve Center, the site for the dual- purpose plan.

The current substation is overcrowded, with officers forced to share lockers and only two urinals available for more than 80 men, according to police.

City leaders say they are hamstrung by the need for a new police post in East Long Beach and a federal requirement that when former military properties are reused, some homeless services are provided.

If Long Beach says no to the property at Willow Street and Grand Avenue, the federal government could give it to a homeless services provider, Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske said.

Officials with both the city and Mental Health America, the organization chosen to run the facility, have unsuccessfully looked at alternative sites for the homeless services.

"I think this would be the least intrusive in the neighborhood to put it on site with the police facility," Schipske said.

Under the proposal, the city would convert Schroeder Hall into the police substation and create a mental health center across the street, adjacent to the Department of Health and Human Services.

No homeless would stay overnight at the location, but the idea upset some residents.

Dave Pilon, president and CEO of Mental Health America Los Angeles, said the location isn't the organization's best solution, but it has been approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice.

"It's a little bit isolated," Pilon said. "We would like something that is a little closer to downtown, or closer to public access."

Joe Sopo, vice chairman of Neighborhoods First, a grass-roots group that has fought the mental health facility, said those served by the center would typically not be people who are in the care of family or an extended support system.

"We're talking about ones who are extreme in their condition," Sopo said.

Residents also have voiced concerns homeless patients using the facility will stay in the area, but Mental Health America has said it will transport patients to and from the site.

To Pilon, the controversy represents the difficulties of helping the mentally ill nationwide.

"I think that the opposition to this project reflects the stigmatization that occurs around mental health issues," Pilon said.